They are selling youth with a side order of potential contention this summer at the Stadium and, since the second wild card berth can make optimists of even the most cynical among us, you can’t just roll your eyes.

Not with a month and a half remaining and the Yankees sitting only 4.5 games out of a playoff spot entering play Tuesday. Not with the energy coursing through the ballpark each time Aaron Judge or the Kraken, Gary Sanchez, steps up to the plate.

But there’s only one thing to say after awful losses like Tuesday night’s 12-6 debacle against the Blue Jays, in which the Yankees blew the 6-0 lead they took into the sixth inning:

Cue that eye roll. Maybe the Yankees shouldn’t be allowed to keep saying they are hanging around on contention’s fringes, no matter how good the rookies look.

Every ballclub has bad nights, but this was humiliating. Worse, it was revealing about a team that dealt its three best players at the trade deadline and is concentrating on playing kids.

Their offense scored six runs thanks mostly to two homers by Sanchez and one by Didi Gregorius and it still wasn’t enough against the Jays’ brawny lineup. Their bullpen allowed 12 runs for just the second time in the last 10 years, wilting with a big lead. It wasn’t just the secondary relievers —

Adam Warren hands the ball over after the disastrous eighth inning starts while he's on the mound.

(Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

Adam Warren hadn’t allowed a run since he returned in the Aroldis Chapman trade, but he got splattered for a four-spot Tuesday in one-third of an inning.

Warren allowed two homers, matching the total Anthony Swarzak allowed in the sixth when the Jays started their comeback. Chasen Shreve relieved Warren in the eighth and did not get an out.

The Yanks used six relievers in a game they once led by six runs, so they may have to explore call-ups to fill the bullpen for Wednesday afternoon’s series finale. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for keeping Toronto off the scoreboard in the deciding game.

Maybe the night breaks differently if there’s no rain delay and Michael Pineda can pitch longer. He threw five scoreless and relatively stress-free innings before the wet stuff came down, but after a 42-minute delay and with Pineda having thrown 68 pitches, Joe Girardi took him out.

It was the right call. It might seem frustrating now since it’s easy to wonder if Pineda could’ve delivered two more sharp innings, but it’s too chancy. Pineda missed all of 2012 and did not pitch in the majors in 2013 while coming back from serious shoulder surgery.

Gary Sanchez sure is fun to watch, but that doesn't mean the Yankees are ready for a playoff run yet.

(Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

“Gosh, I would’ve loved to have sent him out there but with what he went through with that shoulder, we just felt like we couldn’t do it,” Girardi said. “It was frustrating...We just felt it’s risky for him and it’s not a risk that we want to take.”

It’s impossible to say whether Pineda could’ve helped, anyway. He’s hardly a Cy Young candidate — the first time all season his ERA dipped below 5.00 was during Tuesday’s outing. Which brings us to another reason why the Yanks are not really contenders: the rotation, which is now Pineda, CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka and youngsters Luis Cessa and Chad Green. Nathan Eovaldi needs surgery.

Still, the Yankees should have won Tuesday. The game started to slip away in the sixth and then last year’s AL MVP, Josh Donaldson, really put it off the rails when he battled Warren for 12 pitches leading off the eighth, finally working a walk and seeming to discombobulate the righty.

Two two-run homers later, Warren was trudging off the mound and the Yanks’ night was on the way to being ruined. A contender would have put this one away.